


in the after

by lieselss



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Female Friendships, Gen, chosen family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:54:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24288505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lieselss/pseuds/lieselss
Summary: Jyn and Leia reconnect in the aftermath of the Death Star and Jyn gets used to the idea of home.
Relationships: Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso, Jyn Erso & Leia Organa
Comments: 7
Kudos: 74





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is mostly focused on Jyn & Leia with some background Rogue One relationships— those will take a bigger stage in the second half of this.

The second time Jyn speaks to Leia Organa she's dressed nearly the same as the first time they'd met, white gown and fancy hair.

Jyn ignores her approach, leaning back against the temple wall, watching the remaining dust of the Death Star waterfall over the horozon. She threads her last knife through her fingers absently, the rest embedded in a tree a couple of meters away. She can't be bothered to drag her body off the ground to retrieve them. 

"You're shorter than I remember," the Princess says by way of greeting, sinking down to the earth beside Jyn with little regard for her outfit. She clutches a box in one hand and a nearly empty bottle in another. 

"Did Cassian tell you where I was?"

"Chirrut Imwe, actually."

"I don't recall telling him."

"He mentioned that, called it an old man's intuition," she says, pulling two flimsy cups from the pockets of her dress. Jyn snorts.

"Sounds about right."

"You didn't come to the ceremony," Organa says, cutting straight to the chase. Jyn turns to look at her. Still a straight talker then, she could appreciate that.

"Seemed crass for Galen Erso's daughter to attend. The rest of Rogue One didn't attend either, for what it's worth."

The Princess's look could quell a stampede of banthas. "We're not our fathers, adopted or otherwise. And, for what it's worth," she says, tone now _this_ side of mocking "Bodhi Rook was there and seemed terribly uncomfortable. Chirrut and Cassian are bedridden so they get a pass. Which leaves you and Baze."

"And you've chosen to bother me?"

"Of course, Baze is large and terrifying. We've already established you're short."

"And not terrifying?" Jyn asks, slightly annoyed. Organa huffs a laugh.

"You weren't as scary as you thought at 10. You were a bleeding heart then and you're still one now."

"So you're here to cement that bleeding heart to your cause?"

"Don't be cute, I know you've already joined. I'm here to give you the medal you've earned in sevice to the Alliance to Restore the Republic," she says, voice deeping into formality at the end. Jyn frowns.

"I don't want any medals."

"Yeah, Cassian said you wouldn't," she says, tossing aside the box. "He'd didn't accept it either although he did try to salute me, the idiot."

"So you _did_ talk to Cassian."

"Never said I didn't, just that he didn't give away your location."

"Always the politician."

The princess shrugs and adjusts the collar of her dress. The white fabric matches Jyn's memory from thirteen years ago but woman in it now seems much more uncomfortable wearing it than the girl had then.

"I'm sorry, about your father. He seemed like a good man."

"He was. It didn't help him much, he still died," she says frowning. Her eyes begin to water and Jyn looks away, uncomfortable.

The Princess tilts her head back, willing the tears away and shaking her head. "Is Yavin the way you remember it?" she asks.

"The humidity is the same," Jyn says. It prompts a laugh from the other woman.

"It's terrible," she agrees. She draws her legs up until their crossed and hikes her long dress over her knees. Jyn, momentarily and stupidly envies her. Jyn's right leg remained stubbornly stiff, laid out in front of her and locked at the knee.

"Remember the first time we met? The night before my father and Saw got in a shouting match in high command?" Organa asks, uncorking the bottle she brought and pouring the remained of the dirt brown liquid into the pair of cups. "The stayed up late, drinking and exchanging war stories. Well I've had enough of war stories for now but I thought we could share a drink. You already turned down my medal, you can at least accept this."

Jyn takes the cup and the smells hits her strong. "Where did you get this?"

"Solo."

"I can't believe Han Solo joined the rebellion, the prick. So props to you on that," Jyn says raising her glass.

"The nerf-herder claims he hasn't joined. But getting a scoundrel to join the cause is no more impressive than getting the cause to go rogue," she responds pointedly.

"A rogue mission that backed his beliefs, it's not much of a stretch."

"In the years I've known him, Cassian Andor has been a good solider--"

"Aren't you all," Jyn interrupts. The Princess ignores her.

"--a good soldier who's always followed orders. He blantly disobeyed them on your word, that's not nothing."

Jyn narrows her eyes, "How long were you talking with Chirrut?"

Organa smirks. "Long enough," she says lightly, climbing to her feet with her empty glass and dusting herself off. 

"We're happy you're staying, Jyn," the princess says, before heading back toward the main temple. The dull roar of celebrations floats through the jungle.

Jyn forces herself to a standing position and yanks her knives out of the tree, tucking them in their various homes around her body. She walks away from the noise of partying toward the medical wing.

"Hello Jyn Erso," Chirrut's voice greets her as she opens the door. Baze is leaning on his bed and Chirrut is using the larger man's arm as a pillow. Bodhi is sprawled on a chair in the middle, passing around drinks that seem to be the same color as the swill the princess had brought earlier. Cassian greets her with a smile, moving slightly on his bed. 

Jyn hesitates but sits in the space Cassian cleared for her, propping her bad leg on edge of Bodhi's chair. Cassian gently runs a thumb over the top of her hand. She lets herself relax, listening to her team chatter around her. 

She's happy she's staying too.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victory, an encore.

The second Death Star falls in the sky above and Jyn's heart thrums as Baze carries her into Bright Tree Village. Her back aches from where she was thrown against a tree, her hip burns from a blaster graze and her smile is filled with blood.

She doesn't care. They're alive.

They're alive, they're alive, they're alive.

The forest whooped when the Death Star exploded and Jyn had watched on her back in foliage where the explosion tossed her. 

After the first one was destroyed, Jyn felt both shame and relief, hiding away to process alone. She didn’t deserve to celebrate, she’d told Leia as much. But, after the second, she feels righteous. Flat out in the dirt, through wheezing breaths, adrenaline pumping through her, she feels the joy in her bones. Victory sings in her blood. 

"You're more impatient than a child," Baze grumbles, letting her down. She leans heavily on her right side, relieving the burning sensation on her hip. She should get it looked at— Cassian would chastise her for ignoring it, the hypocrite— but she can't be bothered to care right now.

"I could have climbed up here myself," she insists, straightening up as much as her body will allow. Baze snorts.

"Whatever you say little sister."

The tree-top village buzzes with excitement as the sun begins to set, casting everyone in glowing gold. The Ewoks (much better as comrades-in-arms than enemies Solo had hollered when they came through) have pulled out barrels of some local brew. Kes Dameron shoves not one, but two mugs of it into her hand, grinning broadly.

"Drink up Erso, we kriffing survived!" he yells over the increasing din of celebrations sweeping across the platforms and bridges. He spins, grabbing his wife around the shoulders and kissing the top of her head. She nearly spills the handful of drinks she also is passing around, the pair evidently on a mission to have every rebel well and truly smashed by the evening’s end.

Jyn spots the princess across a narrow bridge. She's already changed out of her fatigues, her long hair down around her shoulders, chatting amiably with some of the Alliance's newest friends.

She makes her way across the ropes, only spilling some of the drinks onto the pilots reveling below. She holds one out.

"I don't have any medals, just a drink."

Leia smiles at her, accepting the offering with a big sip. She makes a face. 

"How is it worse than the normal hull stripper we drink?"

"Tribe secret, I think."

Leia laughs and it makes her look young. Or maybe just her age. Vaguely, Jyn wonders if she looks younger than she feels or have all those years of fighting already splayed themselves across her face. 

Leia brings her out of the self-deprecating introspection.

"Han says you saved his ass earlier."

"To be fair, I didn't know it was his ass specifically."

"Either way, thank you. Add it to the list of reasons I'm glad you've stayed."

"Is it as long as the list you're glad _Han_ stayed," Jyn teases, an instinct driven by alcohol more than anything. Leia honest to god _blushes_.

"No,” she admits. “He's not always a complete nerf-herder."

"Mhmm.” Jyn remains unconvinced. Leia rolls her eyes.

"Rebel life has really loosened you up."

"What can I say? I'm fully on board now. Long live the Rebellion,” she says, raising her fist in a faux cheer.

"Have you thought about what you'll do after?"

Jyn lowers her drink, the tenor of the conversation shifting with the question. Her kyber cyrstal feels warm against her chest.

"It's not quite after, there's still a war going on."

"But at somepoint," Leia insists, with something more than simple belief, like she knows it. 

"We thought we were in the after when the Death Star blew the first time and yet, here we are," Jyn reminds her. She sighs.

"I know, but there's something different this time. I don't know how to explain it, it's a feeling."

Jyn's crystal is nearly hot against her chest now and she fixes Leia with a look. She's spent enough time with Chirrut, even Luke Skywalker, not to be dismissive of the Force, even when she can't feel it herself. Cassian and Baze were not quite in the same camp.

"Are you, do you..." Jyn isn't quite sure how to phrase the question.

"I don't know."

Leia’s answer is firm, if perhaps not the whole truth. Jyn drops it. 

"Jedha.”

"What?"

"You asked about after the war-- Jedha. I owe it to Bodhi, Chirrut and Baze. It's not the only world that's going to need help but it's where I plan on starting."

"And Cassian?"

"What about him?"

"Jyn please, you're too smart to pretend to be so obtuse."

"I don't know, Erso's pretty dumb sometimes." 

Solo interrupts, swooping in behind Leia and lifting her up to spin her around. She hits at his arms until he puts her back down.

"I was hoping to steal her highness away for a moment-- ow," he says as Leia socks him in the arm. Jyn snorts.

"By all means, she's the lady of the hour."

"Both of you are riduculous," Leia insists, but it doesn't stop her from curling into Solo's side and following him to the center of the celebrations.

The sun has disappeared over the tree line and the light from dozens of fires dances shadows across the canopy. Jyn finds herself alone for what may be the first time in weeks. She takes a deep breath, the act calming despite the lingering ache in her lungs. She feels light, and it’s not from the buzz of alcohol in her veins.

_Peaceful_ , her mind supplies. The sensation has been absent so long it almost feels foreign. She realizes she craves it. She wants her team-- her family, really, she can admit that to herself in the dark cool of Endor’s evening. She wants _time_. It's a pipe dream, and the pragmatic side of her knows it's unrealisitic but in the flickering light she lets herself imagine it.

The cracking of a branch takes her out of her daydream and she wants to castigate whoever did it but when she turns around she's confronted only by Cassian.

He's dressed in shadows, the way he was the first time she saw him five years earlier. His beard is longer, his hair shorter, and his face clean of dirt and sweat like most of the Rebellion soldiers, including her. He'd spent the battle on _Home One_ with the rest of Rebel Intelligence but now he was here, on Endor, staring at her with an expression of relief so open it sets her veins on fire.

He telegraphs his movements before rushing toward her with long, sure strides and gathering her in his arms, mumbling in her hair.

"Thank the Force."

She pulls back to tell him she's fine, Baze is fine, it wasn't as dire on the ground as it probably sounded over the comms, amid canon fire and screaming.

"I-"

His lips are on hers before she get out another word, one hand cradling her face, the other wrapped tightly around her. If she were a lesser woman she might admit she melts into him. 

But she's not so she won't.

She will say however, she responds enthusiastically.

When they pull away she can't help herself, "Is this how you plan on greeting Baze, too?" she asks, arms looped around his neck.

He laughs and the sound might be the final drop that causes her heart to overflow. He rests his forehead against hers.

"I think Chirrut may have it covered."

They sit against the tree at the center of the platform, legs sprawled out in front of them. Cassian's hand rests gently on her leg and her hand rests on top, drawing mindless designs.

"Leia asked me about my plans, after all this."

"Yeah?" he asks, voice neutral, but eyes searching.

"I told her Jedha. But I hadn't really thought about an after before."

"Me neither. Didn't hold out too much hope of making it that far."

"Well, the war's not over yet," she jokes darkly.

"So Jedha?"

"I figure it's the least I can do for Bodhi and Chirrut and Baze. We're a team aren't we?"

Cassian grimaces, "And me?"

"I know what the Rebellion means to you-- it's not something I would ever ask."

"Not much use for a Rebellion if we do win,” he muses. “Then I'm just some washed up ex-soldier with nightmares."

"We'll match, then," she says, leaning until she can rest her head on his shoulder.

"I meant what I said," he whispers in her hair. "All the way, Jyn."

She wraps her arm around his waist and hold him tightly. 

They’re still so far from the after, whatever that may be.

But when it comes, she won't face it alone.


End file.
